A magneto-optical trap (MOT) is used to cool and trap a dilute atomic gas to temperatures of about 100 μK. The MOT includes a set of lasers that cool the atoms through resonant absorption of light, and a quadrupole magnetic field that traps atoms through an attractive force on each atom's dipole magnetic moment. The MOT works optimally when resonant laser light is directed at the gas sample along all six Cartesian axes. One of these axes is optimally chosen to be the principle axis of the quadrupole magnetic field. The traditional approach to accommodate this geometry is to trap atoms in a vacuum chamber with windows that are arranged as the faces of a cube. Laser light is directed along all six Cartesian axes, perpendicular to each window, into the chamber that contains the atomic gas. A pair of magnetic coils is typically located on opposing sides of the chamber and produces the quadrupole magnetic field.